Sugary Drinks and Weight Gain Linked

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Sept. 21, 2012 -- If you're at risk of obesity because of your genes, you may also be more at risk for weight gain from sugary drinks.

That's according to new research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In people with a high genetic risk for obesity, getting a lot of sugar from sugar-sweetened drinks may amplify the genetic effects on obesity, says researcher Lu Qi, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Qi's study and two others looked at the effects on weight gain of sugary drinks -- including sodas, fruit punches, lemonades, or other fruit drinks.

The new research should inspire people to give up sugary drinks or consider them an occasional treat, says David Appel, MD. Appel is the director of the Montefiore Medical Center School Health Program and associate professor of clinical pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

"These three studies give very clear evidence that drinking sweetened beverages even in modest amounts clearly results in increased weight and excess weight," he says.

In a statement, the American Beverage Association countered: "We know, and science supports, that obesity is not uniquely caused by any single food or beverage."